Work Text:
Among the most beautiful things
I only recognized your beautiful colors
I recognized my colors in her,
Zoro wasn't a poet, he wasn't gentle or delicate. He wasn't an artist who admired the world, much less good with words. No... he was direct, perhaps a little crude, a little cold in some matters and even insensitive in others.
But he knew what it was to love.
He loved his parents for the short time they lived together, he also loved Kuina and he loves the memories he has kept to this day. Zoro knows what it's like to love, what it's like to want to take care of someone, to see them well and to see them happy. He didn't know, however, that love, the act of loving, could be so... radical.
Zoro doesn't think he's changed, but everyone around him says he has. The way he sees it, he's still the same, from the moment before he started dating Luffy to the way he feels afterwards, from his perspective his way of acting hasn't changed, but everyone says it has. Nami stares at him, smug, and says how he looks like a honey bun with Luffy, Robin laughs and compares him to a buttercream softened in the warmth of Luffy's smile: soft, sweet and completely moldable. Maybe it's true that women are more sensitive to this, but even Franky noticed it once and that was like, well, it was like accepting something he didn't necessarily fight against. It made for good laughs at breakfast and Zoro is always amused by the memory of it and of Luffy agreeing between loud laughs.
Because that's what it is, isn't it? That's what love is. Subtle and bombastic, radical and gentle. Beautiful, so, so beautiful.
Zoro isn't a poet, he's not good with words, but if he were, he'd say that Luffy makes everything so much more beautiful. If he was as good with words as he is with swords, he'd say that the image of that smile when he wakes up in the morning next to you can put all the most beautiful paintings to the ground. I'd say that when he laughs out loud, his whole body shaking with delight at something possibly very silly, the sound of his voice is the most mesmerizing enchanted melody, the likes of which no mermaid could ever surpass.
If Zoro were a poet, he would say that Luffy is the most beautiful blend of colors humanly possible. He is the blend of a blue as strong as the sea and the orange of a sunset that promises a new day. Luffy can be a furious and striking blood red, but he can also be a soft and refreshing aqua green. He is the inexplicable sharing of feelings together in one body, one mind in one incredible and beautiful human being that Zoro can see reflecting his own soul, because he understands Luffy, because he can see his own presence marking his spirit. They have become not two, but one.
If Zoro were a poet, he would write on beautiful, decorated papers how his tanned skin, uneven with scars and soft to the touch, is as precious as any shiny gold that men dig up and find. That her eyes shine brighter than a thousand stars reflected in diamonds, I would say that her lips are the sweetest ambrosia that all the gods wish to have in their offerings.
Zoro is no poet, but he knows that every second, every minute he spends next to his partner, the love of his life, becomes a painting brushed in detail with the most expensive paint on the market, recorded by the best side in his memory. Every time they're together, time becomes incorrect: one minute can be the equivalent of ten years, three hours can pass in one minute. I would say that Luffy is a mystical, timeless being and Zoro is his most loyal servant, ready to break all the laws of the world if it would keep that smile forever.
It's up with the sky and the moonlight
Time for the days, weeks,
months, years, decades
And centuries, millennia that will pass
Seawater puts stars in the sea
Beaches, bays, arms,
capes, seas, gulfs
And peninsulas and oceans
that won't dry up
"You're staring at me too much, aren't you?" says the person who dominates his thoughts, smiling softly, warmly and slowly, a smile that is reserved only for Zoro.
"Just thinking about how much I love you." Replied Zoro, simply and directly, because it's the truth.
"How romantic you are." And he laughs with his cheeks flushed red as Zoro feels his heart beating too fast.
They kiss as always, embrace and love each other in the small apartment they recently bought for themselves. Luffy doesn't know it, but somewhere in Zoro's backpack, there is a shiny silver ring that will soon be revealed to Luffy and everyone, because Zoro is not ashamed and has never had to announce his honest love to the best person in the world.
Zoro isn't a poet and isn't good with words, but if he were, he would say that the most beautiful landscapes in the world become even more beautiful when Luffy is there to be a part of it. He would say that the love he feels for Luffy is above the sky, above the clouds, it's on the timeline between the past, the present and infinity. It's as natural as a river flowing into the ocean, as present in his life as the solid ground at his feet.
Zoro is not good with words, but even so, on that sunny summer's day, on that trip that he and Luffy had planned for months and months, he said what his heart yearned to say.
In one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, where the sky and the ground become one, where the definition of paradise seems so close and the world becomes almost magical, Zoro takes the little box out of his pocket, kneels in front of the boy he loves most in the entire universe and repeats the words he has practiced so much in front of the mirror.
"Will you marry me, Luffy?"
Perhaps a little nervous, perhaps a little more shy than he usually is, but without a hint of hesitation in his voice, Zoro utters those words and nothing in the world prepares him for receiving the brightest, smiliest, most tearful and beautiful "yes" in the world.
And when Luffy smiles at him, his cheeks red with cold and heat, his eyes reflecting his soul glowing with happiness, he seems to be part of the scenery. Not a complement, not an ornament, but a significant part that makes the scenery, the memory, his own story so much more beautiful.
And Zoro is not a poet, nor good with words, but if he were... he would write and dedicate all the most epic prose, songs and poems to Monkey D. Luffy, the love of his life and his future husband.
And beautiful things
become more beautiful
When you are
Where you are
Today you are
In things are more beautiful
Why y
ou are
Where you are
Today you are
In things so much more beautiful